Janet Jackson's ex-husband, the Qatari billionaire Wissam Al Mana, is suing Facebook afterwards a crypto scam used his image to promote itself in the Middle East without his permission.

Al Mana is challenge defamation, malicious falsehood and false advertising by the unnamed cryptocurrency house, The Times reported on Feb. 23.

His defamation action has been filed in Dublin, Facebook's European headquarters, where the legal framework for such cases is deemed to exist more amenable for plaintiffs than the United states.

Sue Facebook in Dublin, not Menlo Park

Defamation cases, according to Belfast-based defamation lawyer Paul Tweed, stand a greater risk of success in Europe, as Facebook allegedly attempts to "hide" behind the U.S.' first subpoena principles to evade its responsibilities to protect users' reputations.

Reluctant to give interviews, Al Mana reportedly takes pains to restrict public information and coverage to his official personal site, wissamalmana.com. Recently, he has used the site to clarify that he has no social media accounts and that any profiles ostensibly linked to him "should not be quoted or used as a source of authentic data."

Al Mana — estimated to be worth 1 billion euro — owns the sectional regional rights to prestige brands such as Harvey Nichols, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, and Hermès, besides as the McDonald'due south franchise for Qatar. He was married to the well-known popular star Janet Jackson between 2022 and 2022.

Tweed has previously represented the likes of Djibouti president Ismail Omar Guelleh and Qatari critic Ghanem Nuseibeh against Facebook. He has also represented Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Lopez, Nicolas Cage and Harrison Ford in Irish defamation deportment.

Milking the stars

Last autumn, Cointelegraph reported that a nonexistent and potentially nefarious Bitcoin investment platform was using apparently false testimony from the actress Kate Winslet, besides as purporting to have the bankroll of the likes of Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Bill Gates.

Some celebrities have gotten caught up in legally murky cryptocurrency schemes, such as boxer Floyd 'Coin' Mayweather and rapper DJ Khaled, who helped to promote the initial coin offering for crypto fiscal services startup Centra Tech. Centra Tech'southward co-founders were later indicted and charged with securities and wire fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).